Heart-Shaped Box

Cobain wrote it in early 1992 in an apartment in Los Angeles, where Courtney Love recalled hearing the riff from a closet. Nirvana first played it on 16 January 1993 at the Hollywood Rock Festival in São Paulo and demoed it days later at BMG Ariola in Rio de Janeiro. The studio version was recorded at Pachyderm with Steve Albini, starting on 14 February 1993. Albini said it and Pennyroyal Tea were the only songs that took more than a couple of takes. Grohl recalled that a strobe light was used instead of a click track.

Scott Litt remixed it in May 1993 at Bad Animals in Seattle. A guitar effect that Novoselic disliked was removed, and Cobain added vocal harmonies and acoustic guitar. Cobain told Azerrad it was about children with cancer. The title came from heart-shaped candy boxes that Love kept.

Single and video

DGC released it as a single on 30 August 1993 in Europe only, with Grohl's Marigold on the B-side. In the UK it reached 5, the band's highest chart position there, and in the US it went to number one on Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks. Anton Corbijn directed the video, shot on 31 August and 1 September 1993 at Raleigh Studios in Los Angeles. It was filmed in color, converted to black and white and hand-tinted. Corbijn estimated that about 15 percent of the ideas were his. It won Best Alternative Video and Best Art Direction at the 1994 MTV Video Music Awards. Kevin Kerslake's treatments were not used, and he sued in March 1994; the case was settled.

Rolling Stone's David Fricke said Stone Temple Pilots could not write such a song even with detailed instructions. The Guardian and Kerrang! ranked it first and second on their lists of the 20 greatest Nirvana songs. Lana Del Rey covered it at a concert in Sydney in 2012.

Live

Nirvana played it on Saturday Night Live on 25 September 1993, the first show with Pat Smear. It was the final song at the band's last concert, in Munich on 1 March 1994.